Japan’s Elder Statesman Is Silent No Longer

“For the development of Japan's democracy, I did not think it was good for the Liberal Democratic Party to last forever, or for it to be a permanent ruling party. Being knocked out of power is a good chance to study in the cram school of public opinion.” YASUHIRO NAKASONECredit
Torin Boyd/Polaris, for The New York Times

TOKYO

ANY mere mortal might have reacted with dismay, even anger, if a group of brash newcomers threatened to undo the accomplishments of a lifetime. But from his Olympian heights as Japan’s most revered elder statesman, Yasuhiro Nakasone, the former prime minister, at first watched with sphinx-like calm as an inexperienced, left-leaning government swept to power, challenging Japan’s postwar political order and its close relationship with the United States.

Now, with his former party, the conservative Liberal Democrats, crumbling into disarray since last summer’s historic election, and his nation’s ties with Washington falling to their lowest point in years in a dispute over a base on Okinawa, he is finally speaking out. Mr. Nakasone, 91, a confidant of President Ronald Reagan whose six-decade political career stretched back to the American-led postwar occupation of Japan, has begun a busy schedule of interviews and speeches that would tire a man half his age.

Aware of his status as one of the few leaders revered across Japan’s suddenly fractured political landscape, Mr. Nakasone (na-ka-SOH-nay) is careful in choosing his words. But his message is nevertheless clear. He wants to tell his nation’s conservatives to pick up the pieces from their defeat, and he wants to tell his countrymen to keep a careful eye on a rising China.

But his most important message is for the new prime minister, Yukio Hatoyama, who came to power with promises to create a more equal relationship with the United States. It is possible, he says, for Japan to act more independently without alienating Washington, its protector and proven friend.

Mr. Nakasone also cautions against blowing the current disagreements with Washington out of proportion. When he was prime minister, in the mid-1980s, the strains on the relationship — from an undervalued yen and a string of trade disputes, to fears that Japan would buy up the American economy, to criticism of Tokyo’s anemic defense spending — were actually much more threatening than those of today, he said.

“IN my days, we had trade imbalances, and criticism of Japan taking a ‘free ride’ in national security,” said Mr. Nakasone, who retired from politics in 2003. “We don’t have those problems now. The relationship is much more normal. It is on a firmer footing.”

During an hourlong interview in his office in central Tokyo, Mr. Nakasone sat surrounded by the memorabilia of a political career in which he rubbed shoulders with the likes of Margaret Thatcher and Mikhail Gorbachev, and as a young lawmaker clashed with Gen. Douglas MacArthur, the head of the Allied occupation forces after World War II. He spoke in slowly crafted sentences, punctuated by frequent pauses, as if less sure of aging mental legs in tricky intellectual terrain that he had once traversed with ease.

Still, he remained very lucid on the solution to the current problems dividing Tokyo and Washington, including the simmering dispute over relocating a United States Marine base on Okinawa: Mr. Hatoyama should do as he himself had done, and work at building personal trust with his American counterpart.

As he spoke, Mr. Nakasone repeatedly pointed at a poster-size photograph of him and Mr. Reagan walking together through the woods of Camp David, smiling in identical windbreakers.

“That photograph there, I look at it every day,” he said. “The trust I shared with him supported our nations, Japan and the United States. And it became a source of strength to support the world” during the cold war.

“Have that sort of style,” he added, as if addressing Mr. Hatoyama. “Increase contact with President Obama. Spend as much time as possible together. I’m not talking about one or two hours. For example, have a meal together. After that, have a long after-meal conversation.”

DURING the interview, Mr. Nakasone showed flashes of the fiery nationalist who as prime minister proclaimed Japan an “unsinkable aircraft carrier” against the Soviet Union. He also displayed hints of the celebrated oratorical skills that once set him apart in a nation of colorless political leaders.

Mr. Nakasone was a rarity in the nepotistic, insider-driven world of Japanese politics, a self-made man whose father was a lumber dealer in the poor mountainous prefecture of Gunma, north of Tokyo. As a paymaster in Japan’s Imperial Navy during World War II, Mr. Nakasone said, he developed an enormous pride in his country and an admiration for the strength and ideals of its former foe, the United States.

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Two years after the war’s end, he gave up a promising career in an elite government ministry to run for Parliament with the belief that in its postwar remorse, Japan was in danger of discarding its traditional values. As a freshman lawmaker in 1951, he delivered a 28-page letter to General MacArthur criticizing the occupation, a brazen move. The general angrily threw the letter in the wastebasket, Mr. Nakasone was later told.

This established his credentials as a right-wing politician, and one of the rare Liberal Democratic leaders who escaped the taint of the party’s money-driven machine politics. Indeed, when asked about his career-long affiliation with the Liberal Democrats, he was quick to distance himself by proclaiming himself a lifelong member of what he once called Japan’s “conservative mainstream.”

He described the end of the Liberal Democrats’ half-century of governing as a national opening on par with the wrenching social and political changes that followed defeat in the war. He praised the appearance of a strong second political party as a step toward true democracy.

“FOR the development of Japan’s democracy, I did not think it was good for the Liberal Democratic Party to last forever, or for it to be a permanent ruling party. Being knocked out of power is a good chance to study in the cram school of public opinion.”

Yet, Mr. Nakasone said the victors, particularly Mr. Hatoyama, had a lot to learn, especially about leadership.

As an example, he pointed to his own diplomatic achievements as prime minister. He said he cast aside the deferential pose of his predecessors and seized a high profile at multilateral summit meetings, speaking out in support of the Reagan administration’s hard line against the Soviet Union. This won him a personal friendship with Mr. Reagan, which put the two men on a first-name basis and won Japan more respect globally.

The path to a more equal Japan lies with the United States, not apart from it, he said. He also faulted Mr. Hatoyama for giving Washington the impression that he valued ties with China more than he did those with the United States.

“Because of the prime minister’s imprudent remarks, the current situation calls for Japan to make efforts to improve things,” he said.

The relationship with the United States is different from that with China, he said, because “it is built on a security alliance, and not just on the alliance, but on the shared values of liberal democracy, and on its shared ideals.”

These shared values should be enough to bind the United States and Japan together even in tough times, Mr. Nakasone said. So should the personal bonds between their leaders, which can last a lifetime. Mr. Nakasone contributed a cherry tree to the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, Calif., and attended the funeral of his old friend almost six years ago. He said he still corresponded with the former first lady, Nancy Reagan.

“In the end, friendly relations between nations depend on the sense of trust between their leaders,” he said. “Problems like Okinawa can be solved by talking together.”

A version of this article appears in print on January 30, 2010, on Page A11 of the New York edition with the headline: Japan’s Elder Statesman Is Silent No Longer. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe